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Taking its cues as much from Star Wars and Game of Thrones as from its own storybook narrative, How to Train Your Dragon 2 breathes fire into a franchise sequel.

It picks up exactly where the 2010 blockbuster animated adventure ended, and also expands the original cast with prominent new characters voiced by Cate Blanchett, Djimon Hounsou and GoT’s Kit Harington.

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This would normally be a recipe for unsatisfying sequel bloat. But Dragon 2 escapes mediocrity by seriously increasing the heroic stakes and by colouring in characters (especially Hiccup, Jay Baruchel’s youthful dragon whisperer) rather than just broadening the canvas.

In so doing, the movie aims not so much at the preteen audience honed by the first film and by Cressida Cowell’s bestselling children’s book series of the same name.

Rather, Dragon 2 is intended more for teens and adults who will appreciate the many shout-outs to Star Wars (an avowed fascination of writer/director Dean DeBlois, now working sans fellow DreamWorks writer/director Chris Sanders) and also to TV’s Game of Thrones, a more recent phenomenon.

The film begins as before with Hiccup describing his remote Viking island of Berk, but there’s a major difference: instead of being a place where people are constantly at war with toothy dragons of every stripe, it’s become a happy home for both species.

The Celtic characters now joust with their pet winged beasties, as seen in an breathless airborne match that recalls the Quidditch games of Harry Potter (yet another movie hat tip) and also reintroduces us to Hiccup’s gal pal Astrid (America Ferrera) and their goofy friends Snotlout (Jonah Hill), Fishlegs (Christopher Mintz-Plasse) and twin sibs Tuffnutt and Ruffnut (T.J. Miller and Kristen Wiig).

Hiccup has matured considerably, although he still sounds like a kid. He’s also still at odds with his hirsute papa Stoick (Gerard Butler) and dad’s friend and sidekick Gobber (Craig Ferguson), who still haven’t quite come to grips with Hiccup’s taming of a feared Night Fury dragon that the peace-loving lad has named Toothless.

Stoick wants to groom Hiccup as his eventual successor as clan leader. But the son yearns for grander adventures, a yen that inadvertently leads him and Toothless into the icy lair of a rapscallion named Eret (Harington), who is assembling an army of enslaved dragons for his Darth Vader-ish boss Drago Bludvist (Hounsou).

The considerably expanded storyline, also penned by a solo DeBlois, includes Blanchett’s mysterious character Valka, a dragon tamer and protector who can be thought of as both nurturer and warrior.

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Valka has under her command a giant new alpha dragon called the Bewilderbeast, which is even larger and more imposing than the Godzilla-ish Red Death fire breather from Dragon 1.

Her Bewilderbeast has a sinister counterpart in a similar animal controlled by Bludvist, who has learned how to use it to imprison the minds of other dragons, with potentially calamitous results.

There’s a “2” in the title of the film but “5” is the more significant number here. That’s how many years past the events of Dragon 1 that the story is now set, but more significantly, it’s also about five years since DreamWorks was in post-production on the first film.

Rather than rush out a sequel to quickly cash in on the global phenomenon the first movie became, DreamWorks opted to take its time to get things right for the next chapter of the franchise.

This includes securing acclaimed cinematographer Roger Deakins as a visual consultant, imparting his dramatic sense of light and space to give the ongoing saga even more visual pop than before.

Also back is composer John Powell, whose Celtic musical collaborations with Sigur Rós frontman Jónsi includes one number, “For the Dancing and the Dreaming” that provides for an enchanting song-and-dance interlude. The song’s lyrics were written by Shane MacGowan of The Pogues.

If all of this makes Dragon 2 sound considerably more adult than Dragon 1, it certainly is, especially with a truly hissable villain in Bludvist, and plot developments that make the lost limbs and wings of humans and dragons from the first movie pale in comparison.

At times, the new film gets so intense, it’s a question whether any young child should see it (note that Parental Guidance rating). This was evidently the afterthought of the family seated next to me at a Dragon 2 promo screening, who spirited away their tot less than 10 minutes after the movie began, during that violent dragon joust opener.

But losing the Playskool set is a small price to pay for keeping and expanding the film’s older audience, one that can appreciate a rare sequel that strives to be more than just a cynical cash-in of refried dragon tales.

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